The Arab-Israeli Conflict, Article Review Example

The Arab-Israeli conflict has been persistent for so long owing to religious and cultural factors; which have contributed heavily to fueling the conflict.  This results from the activities both cultural and religious, which have developed a state of unrest in the Middle Eastern region, in the Holy Land (Jonathan, 2001). The religious issues in the area pertaining to religion supremacy between Jews and the Muslims have had considerable influence on the ideal dynamics of conflicts in the Middle East (Jonathan, 1999). The two groups hold religious issues as more important within the ethnic groups, therefore, firing the conflict in this case with the religious institutions facilitating unrest.

In the Middle East region, the two religions shape discrimination particularly against ethnic minorities with Muslims being the majority around the region. It is legitimate to use religion ideally in political discourse within the Middle East which is why these conflicts develop strongly and become more intense (Jonathan, 2001). Cultural factors also have been critical as perpetrators of the conflict bearing in mind that the Jewish State has diverse cultures compared to the Palestine where most of the people are Muslims (Jonathan, 1999). Same case with religion, discrimination against the minority group has been the persistent cause of the prevailing conflict.

The creation of the State of Israel has an extensive history with numerous religious and political factors coming into play as some of the ground reason for its creation. On the eve, of the 1967 Six-Day War Israel was a country of more than 2.5 million people, with a size of 7,200 square miles. Since then, it intensified its geographic and demographic inferiority to stretch 250 miles from the Red Sea port in the south all the way up to the village of Metulla bordering with Lebanon and Syria in the north (Jonathan, 2001). This is just an example of what Israel has been doing all along its creation history.

In 1947, the United Nations drew a plan dividing Palestine into a Jewish sector and a Palestinian, Arab sector. The next year, Israel was established as an independent nation covering much of Palestine. In 1967, Israel seized the rest of Palestine (Jonathan, 1999). Major prospects for a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian question include four texts of which two are critically esteemed (Mitchell). The first stipulates that the Committee formed to fight for exercising of the rights of the Palestinians should continue extending its support and cooperation to civil society organizations in mobilizing international solidarity for the Palestinian people, especially during this important period of humanitarian hardship, as well as the financial crisis (Bailey, 1990). The other involves encouraging the Security Council in becoming more active in the operations and activities that support peace across the region (General Assembly). However, even with this in mind, it is exceptionally clear Palestinian functioning to reach an agreement on the ideal formation of a national unity government, there is still a monumental challenge for the humanitarian situation especially in the Gaza Strip, where it has seriously deteriorated.

Israeli victory in the Six-Day War (1967) has a positive impact on Israelis and Arabs (Palestine Facts). The victory was devastating to numerous Arab countries, which expected an easy victory for themselves but only failed to achieve their goal of destroying Israel (Mitchell). On the contrary, the targeted Israel gained all of Jerusalem, Sinai, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Bailey, 1990).

The victory also had a great impact on international politics, which was more negative to Jews. One of the greatest impacts is that it increased the number of enemies across Middle East and in the global world (Palestine Facts). Other countries persecuted Jews living in their countries particularly in Arabian countries expelling them from their areas of residence (Mitchell). It knows that mobs started attacking Jewish neighborhoods in Yemen, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco, as they burned synagogues and assaulted residents (Bailey, 1990).

References

Bailey, S. (1990). Four Arab-Israeli Wars and the Peace Process. London: The MacMillan Press.

General Assembly (2010). Peaceful settlement of palestine question, un special information programme, GA/PAL/1020. Retrieved 21^st September 2010, from, http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/gapal1020.doc.htm

Jonathan, F. (1999). Do Religious Institutions Support Violence or the Status Quo? Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 22 (1999): 119-139.

Jonathan, F. (2001). Are Middle East Conflicts More Religious? Middle East Quarterly, fall 2001, pp. 31-40

Mitchell, B. n.d. The 1967 Six-Day War. Retrieved 21^st September 2010, from, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/67_War.html

Palestine Facts (2010). ISRAEL 1948-1967 six day war result: What was the result of the Six Day War? Retrieved 21 September 2010, from, http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1948to1967_sixday_result.php